Tas Computer Specifications

If you’re new to Tas, you may be wondering what sort of computer you’ll need to be able to run the software, or you may be wondering what equipment you’ll need in order to get the most out of it. In this guide, we’ll start to explore this topic in more detail.

The quick answer

If you’re wondering what the minimum computer specification for Tas is, the good news is that Tas will run on almost any modern Windows computer. By modern, we mean:

  • Runs Windows 10 or newer
  • 8GB of RAM (but we’d recommend 16GB)

In terms of CPU, Tas will run on any CPU that runs Windows, it’s just simulation times may be longer on older processors.

Tas will also run on machines with less than 8GB of RAM, but you may run into very slow simulation times if there isnt much free memory available to the software.

The long answer

In order to get the most out of Tas, it’s important to take into consideration the sort of analysis you’ll be performing using the software. 

Building Regulations, Overheating, Design Sizing etc

Building regulations such as Part L, overheating analysis such as TM52 and TM59 and the Design Day Wizard often involve two time consuming components:

  • Exporting 3D models (shading calculations)
  • Simulating the TBD

In order to maximise the speed of shading calculations which are usually performed when exporting the 3D model to the Building Simulator, a fast modern graphics card should speed up the process. The faster the graphics card, the faster the export. 

With regards to simulating the Building Simulator (TBD) files as fast as possible, the most important thing is to ensure that the processor you are using has good single threaded performance. 

Websites such as Passmark can provide CPU benchmarks for a wide range of processors. The benchmarks include a Single Threaded Performance score and a Multithreaded Score. For individual TBD simulations, generally speaking, the higher the single threaded performance benchmark the faster the simulation will be. 

Note that the second fastest processor on this list is the i7-1360P which is a laptop processor, so you don’t necessarily need an expensive desktop to get the most out of Tas. 

 

Our regulations studios can simulate up to 4 files at the same time, so therefore having at least 4 cores will be beneficial.

Shading Calculations

To perform shading calculations efficiently, we recommend any modern graphics card, and do not use the software via remote desktop. If you do not have a graphics card, thats OK too, the shading calculations may just take a little bit longer. 

There is also the option to distribute shading calculations across a network using multiple computers, which we recommend for exceptionally large models. 

Daylight Calculations

For single daylight calculations such as daylight factor calculations, again, the single threaded performance is the most valuable metric as per the guidance above.

For Climate Based Daylight Modelling calculations (CBDM), the number of cores the processor has is another important factor. 

This is because the CBDM wizard performs many single daylight calculations at the same time. For a 9am to 4pm calculation, 57 calculations are performed so for the fastest possible CBDM calculations, a CPU with around 64 cores would be optimal. 

If you do purchase a CPU with a large number of cores, you will also need sufficient RAM to pair with that CPU. For large models, 2GB of ram per core is a good guide. For exceptionally large models, this could be higher. 

Example good all-rounder

For most users, the following PC specification would be reasonable:

  • CPU: 13th Generation i7 or i9 or AMD Ryzen 9 7900
  • 32GB RAM
  • NVIDIA 4070 GPU
  • Solid state drive
  • Windows 10 or 11
If you need to occasionally run large CBDM calculations and need a rapid turnaround, our consultancy services department can simulate these for you for a small fee.
 
This example specification was last updated in April 2024. 

A note about laptops

Tas will run perfectly well on the vast majority of laptops, but for the fastest simulation times, avoid the lower energy mobile processor series that are designed to maximise battery life, e.g. the i7-10510U from the chart above.

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